Sorben in Deutschland: Kulturelle Praktiken und kulturelle Sicherheit
The Sorbs in Germany: Cultural Practices and Cultural Security

Summary/Abstract: Cultural practices of ethnic minorities provide great potential for self-reassurance and identity constructs. People look for strategies to overcome crises, especially in times of social upheaval. Transformation of cultural practices can then be seen just as much in personal lives as in the staging of collective cultural practices, which not uncommonly have an ambivalent character. They are capable equally of generating cultural security and creating insecurity. Using the staging of Sorbian folk dances and access to the biog- raphies of women who wear folk costumes, the following questions are pursued: which strategies in dealing with new social conditions were developed by the performers? How do changes in the interpretation of „traditional“ patterns come about? How do such culturally interpreted references find legitimation? We show how coming closer to the cultural heritage of a minority can foster cultural security.

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